Six million people living in Indigenous and non-urban (I+NU) communities in Canada face highly disproportionate exposure to negative health, social and economic impacts from untreated and contaminated drinking water. Problems are rooted in the complexities of knowledge sharing and utilization – no single individual or organization possesses all of the knowledge needed to fully assess complex issues and solve fundamental problems unique to each community.

RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation’s (RESEAU) goal was to accelerate the creation of sustainable improvements in drinking water health for Canadian I+NU communities. RESEAU’s Community Circle™ model for innovation customizes solutions for communities, with decisions, practices, technologies and services tailored to a community’s unique needs. It systematically collected and assessed existing knowledge of potential solutions, while capturing and weighing the perspective of all the stakeholders involved in I+NU water system upgrades. RESEAU’s helped partners and stakeholders understand and act upon the knowledge, skills, values and ethical responsibilities required to innovate, and to embrace the notion that issues of water quality in I+NU communities are directly connected to broader health and social challenges.

Among the results

RESEAU’s mission translated into an innovation platform, articulated along the regeneration of the technological and socioeconomic environments, and four functional evolution streams:

Community Circle™: Designing innovative platforms to generate insights from combining technological solutions and rightsholders’/stakeholders’ perspectives, capabilities, and contributions, to build memorable community experiences. RESEAU engaged 15 regional I+NU “anchor” community groups through Community Circle™ to become a stabilizing force, helping nearby communities to make choices pertaining to self-governance and self-determination, as well as sustainability.
Streamlined Approach to Implementing Localized Solutions (SAILS)™: Scaling innovative design, development, and implementation model to drive transformational change towards building lasting community acceptance. RESEAU created novel opportunities for sharing experimental evidence that captured community experiences and revealed nuances about what happens when alternative solutions are explored for Lifting Long-Lasting Boil Water Advisories.
Digital Circle: Designing innovative platforms to enhance immersive experience and connectivity among representatives of value chain partners, talent, and communities. This includes the Operators’ Walkthrough Lab and Immersive Professional Development Platform (OWL).
Ethics, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Orchestration: Redesigning policies, procedures, and incentives to embed ethical guideposts, and culturally responsive evaluation metrics within rural water-health innovation. RESEAU propagated the first-ever Canadian Framework for Ethical Water health Innovation based on synthesized stakeholder knowledge and experience to guide I+NU water/community health improvement projects and processes. RESEAU was also developing a culturally responsive evaluation framework for assessing innovative technologies, services, regulations, services, regulations and policies that enhances understanding of barriers and solutions.